


Where Do The Shadows Hide

by raendown



Category: Naruto
Genre: Because Dahtwitchi has infected me, Cockblocking, M/M, and it's funny
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-12
Updated: 2018-05-12
Packaged: 2019-05-05 18:28:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14624493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raendown/pseuds/raendown
Summary: There really aren't that many places to hide when you live in a building full of sneaky assassins.





	Where Do The Shadows Hide

**Author's Note:**

> For KakaYama Week 2018, prompt "ANBU Bloopers"

It started with stolen glances, peeking out from underneath the cool metal of his happuri whenever he thought his senpai wasn’t looking. Kakashi was attractive, no one could deny that, but that wasn’t really why Tenzou stared at him at first. As he grew from a child to an adolescent it was mostly just hero worship. His senpai was more than just his only friend; he was the one who had saved Tenzou from the darkness of ROOT, shown him that feeling emotions wasn’t wrong, and led him down a better path. How could he not stare when Kakashi meant so much to him?

Once puberty hit, however, that was when the staring changed. His rigorous observation led him to discovering the exact angle of Kakashi’s jawline, the shape of his fingers beneath the sharp black uniform gloves. Tenzou memorized all the shades of his senpai’s hair and every shadow hiding behind that single dark eye. His crush was slow to develop since he wasn’t all that good with emotions still but once it had taken root it grew like a well-watered weed.

Before he knew it Tenzou was eighteen and blushing every time his senpai stood too close, fumbling his words and getting suckered in to paying for way too many meals. He always had been a pushover for Kakashi’s compliments – or anyone’s, really.

Even as he finally came to term with how he felt about his friend, Tenzou was already making peace with the fact that it was unlikely that Kakashi would ever return his interest. Someone like Kakashi, in his mind, deserved someone who could give him all the things that he so obviously deserved. All Tenzou had to offer was an ANBU paycheck and the pouch of dog treats he’d taken to carrying around with him; not exactly a sweet deal.

Which is why it came as such a surprise the day he and Kakashi kissed for the very first time.

Tenzou had been living in the same room in the same barracks for almost a decade of his life but the partner he was assigned to bunk with had changed several times. Once it was because they found his wide staring eyes creepy and asked to move, once because his roommate died in the line of duty, and once because his fellow soldier had defected to another village. At the time when Tenzou’s entire life changed he was bunking with a man somewhere in his mid-thirties and considering retirement. He was the sort of man who could run you out of the room with just one silent glare, his eyes filled with all the unspeakable things they had seen over the years and promises of inflicting them upon you if you kept bothering him.

Kakashi took one look at his kohai’s roommate before quietly asking if they could talk somewhere else – somewhere more private. Blissfully unaware of what was about to happen, Tenzou followed along trustingly until they had closed themselves in to an empty training room full of weights and gym mats.

“Is this about a mission?” he asked. His friend paused for a moment, the mask shifting over his mouth like he was biting at his lip.

“No.”

“Are you mad at me?”

“No.” Kakashi’s eye scrunched up in a quick smile and Tenzou breathed a sigh of relief. He only had the one friend; it was lonely whenever one of them was mad at the other.

Then he shifted his weight a little awkwardly, fresh out of ideas. “So why did you drag me out here then?”

It wasn’t much of a surprise that he had to wait for an answer. Kakashi liked to think about his words before he said them, weighing his options and more often than not parsing it down to a monosyllabic response. His senpai lifted one gloved hand to scratch at his neck before bringing it back down to fiddle with the porcelain mask strapped to his belt. Tenzou waited patiently, curiously, until finally Kakashi took a slow deep breath and set his jaw in a show of determination.

Only, instead of saying anything he reached forward and cupped Tenzou’s jaw before bending down and kissing him as best as he could without taking off the cloth which covered his face at all times.

Tenzou stood as still as possible. Had he fallen asleep? Was this a dream? Any minute now he would wake up as he had done from hundreds of similar dream-scenarios, always with a disgruntled frown and an insistent erection which he would need to sneak past his roommate in order to take care of.

A yelp escaped him when gloved fingers pinched at his clavicle.

“Just gonna stand there all day?” Kakashi asked him brusquely. “If you didn’t like it you can just say so.”

“I liked it! A lot!” Tenzou flushed at his own outburst, although he had no intention of taking the words back. Kakashi gave him a suspicious look for a moment before clearing his throat and looking away in an obvious effort to appear casual. It didn’t work but the effort was there.

“So would you maybe want to do that again sometime?”

“What, kiss you?”

Kakashi nodded, watching him from the corner of one eye, and Tenzou felt almost lightheaded enough to rise up off the ground and float away.

“What’s wrong with right now?”

The words had only just barely left his mouth when Kakashi pounced. Between one heartbeat and the next he found himself pressed up against the wall of the training room, one arm a little uncomfortable where it was against the edge of some of the weight equipment but lacking the concentration to care about it. His entire being was focused on the warmth of Kakashi’s breath through that stretchy mask and the feeling of hands skimming down his sides.

At eighteen years old Tenzou knew that he was entering the prime years for people to ask him why he hadn’t gone out and lost his virginity yet. The idea had never really seemed appealing from all the weird things he’d had to listen to in the barracks when his peers started gossiping. Now, however, he suddenly understood what they had all been talking about when they warned him about teenage hormones running out of control. His entire body was tingling and all he could think about was what it would feel like if Kakashi kissed him in any of the other places he’d heard about. What would it taste like if Kakashi let _him_ do the exploring?

What he was really curious about though was if it would really feel that much better to let someone else take care of the erection he could already feel forming. It felt alright when he did it for himself. Surely there couldn’t be that much of a difference just because it was someone else’s hand.

His thoughts derailed a little when a muscled thigh slipped between his own and lifted to grind up in to his crotch. Yeah. That felt different.

“Ever done any of this before?” Kakashi panted in to his mouth.

“You think I’m gonna give it up on the first date, senpai?”

Tenzou grinned up at his friend’s startled look. He almost laughed when a line of red began to show above the mask.

“Oh. Right. I might have gotten a little carried away. Uh, we’re supposed to go on dates or something first, aren’t we?”

“I’m just teasing, senpai.” He shifted, rubbing himself down on to the leg between his own. “You’re right; I haven’t done this before. But that isn’t to say I’m not curious.” A small laugh did escape his control at the relief he could see in his friend’s eye. Maybe he wasn’t the only one who had been waking up in the middle of the night to deal with the aftermath of a really good dream.

Rather than say anything else and shove his own foot in to his mouth – as he was wont to do – Kakashi nodded a little frantically and swooped down to kiss him again. Tenzou groaned and arched up against the chest pressing in to his own, his fingers clutching at biceps deliciously exposed by the traditional ANBU uniform. He always had enjoyed the flash of bare shoulders these outfits granted him. Now he was free to trace the shapes of Kakashi’s muscles and clutch tighter when the leg beneath him ground upwards again.

Things were just barely heating up when both of them heard a single footstep from outside and the jiggle of a door handle as their only warning. A second later the door was swinging open and Kakashi was shifting his stance, body flowing seamlessly from sensual pressure to aggressive hold. Tenzou let himself be captured only because the bulk of Kakashi’s body in front of his own made a rather convenient shield to hide the bulge of his erection. That wasn’t really something that anyone else needed to see.

“Excellent,” Aoba’s voice said from behind the mask of a raven. “I was hoping there would be more people in here to spar with. You want to do rounds with us?” Raidou waved at them from over Aoba’s shoulder as he stepped in to the room as well.

“Actually we’re cutting it pretty close at it is; we should have left a few minutes ago.” Kakashi shrugged as though unconcerned that he might be late for something yet again.

“Is he giving you a hard time again, Cat? You shouldn’t let him push you around the way he does. No one trains _that_ much.”

Tenzou bit his lip at the sympathetic gazes of their comrades. If only they knew the way Kakashi was really pushing him around this time – and much he wanted it to continue. After clearing his throat to ensure his voice wouldn’t betray him, he tapped Kakashi twice with two fingers as though to signal the end of a spar.

“No it’s fine. He’s right, though, we should get going. Senpai, you can’t keep making us late for things like this!”

Kakashi backed off and shoved both hands in his pockets, leading the way out of the room while Tenzou made a good show of scolding him as he normally would. The second the door closed to leave them alone in the hallway Kakashi caught his hand and dragged him away towards the weapon storage halls. Nothing said romance to an ANBU quite like getting hot and heavy in a room full of sharp things.

Both of them grinned like idiots upon finding the first room they checked to be empty of anyone else, nothing inside but metal and dust carefully stored on endless racks of cured wood. Most of their fellow ANBU only came in to the storage rooms to replenish missing equipment before a mission and, since there weren’t any squads heading out today, there shouldn’t be any need for someone to come in here. As long as they didn’t make enough noise to attract unwanted attention they should remain blissfully alone.

As soon as Tenzou’s back hit the wall Kakashi had fingers up his shirt to trace the shapes of his chest. He groaned and retaliated by bending down to nip at the nylon covered jugular just in front of him, smirking around his mouthful when his partner gasped in his ear.

“Gonna wear this stupid mask the whole time?” he asked. “Or is that supposed to be part of the mystery or whatever?”

“If you don’t like it then take it off,” Kakashi shot back. Tenzou paused, straightening his neck so he could blink in surprise, chakra roiling with all the emotions bubbling up inside him.

“Really?”

“Sure, why not?”

Kakashi shrugged but it was obvious that he didn’t feel quite as blasé as he was trying to appear. There probably wasn’t anything he could have done which would have made his feelings more obvious – but Tenzou certainly wasn’t going to waste an opportunity like this blubbering about it. Licking nervously at his lips, he reached up with one hand and tucked a single finger under the line of Kakashi’s mask. Many had wondered and many had tried yet _he_ was the one who got see what was hiding underneath this flimsy, still-somehow-insurmountable barrier.

A ridiculous giggle escaped him, making Kakashi’s eye scrunch up in amusement. His friend shifted closer and Tenzou had to reach out with his free hands to steady himself on whatever was nearest. Inside his chest his heart was beating wildly, his blood rushing fast, his chakra spinning nearly out of control until it was all he could do not to sprout flowers or something else stupidly embarrassing.

Just as he began to pull, however, he felt Kakashi tensing against him.

“Do you smell something burning?”

“Uh…”

Looking over, both of them twitched in horror before Kakashi jerked away and hauled Tenzou across the room.

“Move!” he cried.

They spilled out in to the hallway only seconds before the explosive tag went off. Splinters and smoke came rushing after them, along with a few stray kunai moving at speeds which made them glad for their ability to dodge. Kakashi took a slow breath in and peeked sideways.

“Any idea what set that off?” he asked. Tenzou cringed.

“I might have been leaking some excess chakra.” A helpless shrug lifted his shoulders. “I was excited, alright? You know what the Mokuton does when I get jittery.”

“Yeah, apparently it makes you shoot off early.”

“Bad, senpai,” Tenzou deadpanned in the face of Kakashi’s snickers. “That was _bad_.”

“Maybe we should leave before anyone gets here. Actually I’m a little worried about their response time, that should probably be brought up to someone. Later. Not right now.”

Rolling his eyes and shaking his head, Tenzou did allow himself a tiny smile as Kakashi took his hand and pulled him away again. Footsteps could be heard approaching from the other direction while they rounded a corner but neither of them gave any thought to stopping or going back. Why bother when they would probably just get in trouble if they stuck around? Not to mention have their efforts for privacy entirely ruined by the investigation.

For a couple of minutes they wandered aimlessly, whispering under their breath as they both tried to think of somewhere else where they might actually manage to be alone. Both of their dorms were out and the training rooms had already been proven unsafe. The practice fields outside wouldn’t provide enough cover either. Kakashi half-heartedly suggested one of the interrogation cells but Tenzou nixed that idea as soon as he heard it, not wanting to risk getting themselves accidentally locked in. Trying to explain what they had been doing was a mortification he could definitely live without.

Tenzou found himself getting a little exasperated. Was it really so hard to be intimate with someone? No wonder all his comrades liked to brag about it if it was so difficult to find a place alone where they could actually–!

He cut himself off before his mind could finish that sentence. Kakashi hadn’t actually explicitly said he wanted to have sex, per se, only implied similar activities. There was no need to get himself worked up when he wasn’t entirely sure what he was working himself up towards.

After it seemed like they had ruled out nearly everywhere in the building for one reason or another, Kakashi groaned in frustration and dropped his head back, seemingly asking the heavens for patience. Then he paused and settled both hands on his hips, his one visible eye tracking back and forth across the ceilings. Tenzou waited anxiously to hear what kind of mad thought had just popped in to his companion’s head. He knew that look; that was a dangerous _idea_ look.

“How desperate are you feeling?” Kakashi asked him.

“I’ve been walking around with an erection for the past fifteen minutes,” Tenzou pointed out. “And it’s your fault. Pretty desperate, if I have to be honest about it.”

“Desperate enough to climb in to the ceiling vents?”

“Uhm, what?”

Startled, he watched Kakashi scale the wall of the hallway they were in and press the nearly invisible grate upwards. Those grates were built to be all but undetectable to anyone who didn’t know they were there, covered with genjutsu on top of that, to prevent infiltrators from taking the easy escape route. Since no one would expect any foreign shinobi to be in there it stood to reason that no one would expect any friendly shinobi to be in there either.

It didn’t exactly sound comfortable but beggars can’t be choosers, he supposed.

“Coming?” Kakashi asked, poking his head back out after he’d disappear up in to the ceiling.

“Maybe,” Tenzou muttered while he climbed up as well. “If we can get enough time alone.”

While his companion choked and spluttered, he climbed up and set off along the metal ventilation shaft, surprised by how roomy it was in here. If they didn’t want anyone climbing through these things then maybe they shouldn’t build them large enough to squeeze a fully grown body through. How much room did air truly need to travel from place to place?

He didn’t really have any sort of destination in mind and it actually took a couple minutes of crawling for Tenzou to stop and peek over his shoulder at the one following him. Kakashi blinked back with a curious tilt to his head.

“Is something wrong?”

“Why are we looking for somewhere to go? We’re already hidden. One vent is as good as another, right?”

They stared at each other for a few seconds before Kakashi startled chuckling. He crawled forward and tugged on one of his kohai’s ankles, trying to direct him without words. After a bit of trial and error Tenzou was able to wriggle himself around so that he was spread out on his back, leaving just enough space for Kakashi to crawl over top of him and gently settle their bodies together.

“Cozy,” he commented.

Before Tenzou had a chance to think up some snarky answer to that, Kakashi took his mouth in a kiss that wiped away all thoughts. Fingers immediately began to roam once more, undoing vests and slipping under shirts, and Tenzou felt his back arching when a fingernail scraped down across one of his nipples. He’d never even considered that his nipples might be a sensitive area. Although, to be fair, Tenzou didn’t waste a lot of time wondering about his own erogenous zones when until today he hadn’t even experienced his first kiss.

His own hands were busily working their way up Kakashi’s sides, enjoying all the dips and edges of hard earned muscles. Since it was already unzipped anyway he pushed the bulky protective vest off of Kakashi’s shoulder, taking the opportunity to trace those as well. His senpai had developed an absolutely delicious set of shoulders.

Fire licked through his veins at the same time as he felt a tongue press against his lips from behind the cloth of that stupid mask. He rolled his head to the side to break their kiss, grinning sideways.

“Take two,” he whispered, skimming his palms up the sides of Kakashi’s neck and reaching for the edges of the mask. His companion held still and did nothing to stop him, his muscles tense and his eyes hyper-focused on Tenzou’s own. Revealing the face that no one but a special team of medics had seen in over a decade felt like a momentous occasion that should be given the proper reverence, done slowly to savor the moment.

Tenzou, however, found that he didn’t have the patience for that kind of thing right now. He yanked the mask down all in one go and left himself gaping – in consternation.

“It’s just a _face_ ,” he groaned.

“What did you think I was hiding under here?” Kakashi asked. “A beak? Scales? Fangs? Well, I mean, I’ve sort of got fangs.”

He grinned, showing off his oversized canine teeth. Tenzou blinked at them, trying to tell himself that sharp teeth weren’t attractive in any particular way, and failing to make a convincing argument. With a grunt he pulled his companion down in to another kiss and moaned for how much better it felt to do so without anything separating them. His entire body jerked and another wave of heat raced down his spine when he felt those sharp teeth nibbling on his lower lip. Apparently he had a thing for teeth which he had not been aware of.

Kakashi shifted his weight, rubbing the length of their bodies together in a way that had Tenzou squirming with brand new sensations. He could feel the hard bulge in Kakashi’s trousers and the way it pressed up against his own was the most divine pressure, still not better than being wrapped in his own fingers but close enough that he was more eager than ever to see what it felt like to be held tight in someone else’s grasp. Tenzou’s eyes rolled back in his head when Kakashi rubbed against him again, setting up a rhythm that rocked their hips together repeatedly and threatened to drive him out of his mind.

Metal creaked softly as they rocked, their bodies searching instinctively for more room to move against each other and pressing fruitlessly against the walls with every thrust. Soft gasps and muted groans filled the limited space around them. Tenzou could barely believe how good this felt and they didn’t even have half of their clothes off yet. Just the thought of what else Kakashi could show him was enough to make him shiver uncontrollably.

“You like this,” Kakashi noted in a warm voice, each syllable spoken directly against his own lips. “I know a few things that you’ll like even more.”

“Gods, _yes_ senpai. Please.”

“Begging already. I like that!”

“Can I beg for you to shut up and get on with it?”

“Ooh, someone’s feeling feisty today.” Kakashi ground his hips down with a little extra pressure, dropping nearly all of his body weight on top of Tenzou’s, who opened his mouth to retort but was stop by a loud creak.

Both of them froze and Tenzou cautiously eyed the metal walls around them. “Hey, do you have any idea what part of the building we’re in?”

“You were leading the way,” his senpai pointed out. “I was just following you.”

Neither of them had time to say anything else. With a rumble and a sudden shrieking of metal, the floor of the vent gave way beneath their combined weight, sending them tumbling down through the ceiling of whatever room they happened to be over top of. Tenzou wheezed as the breath was knocked completely out of him upon impact, closing his eyes and rolling over to hold his stomach. It was a tiny consolation that Kakashi didn’t seem to be faring any better, though not much. Other people’s pain didn’t take away his own, after all.

Once the dust was settled and he was able to blink his eyes open, Tenzou could see that they had fallen in to the locker room close to the training areas where they had kissed for the very first time. He scowled at the irony of having come full circle as he rolled slowly to his feet and looked around. Part of the ceiling had collapsed and bits of plaster and wood lay scattered throughout the room. It didn’t seem like anything had been damaged other than the roof itself, mostly just a cleanup job with mild repairs. They were lucky enough that no one had even been in here.

Footsteps echoed in the hallway outside, prompting the two of them to look at each other with wide eyes, panic rising. There wasn’t anywhere else to go from here unless they crawled back in to the ceiling. Even a good quick shunshin was out of the question since the building was warded against that sort of thing.

ANBU were pretty paranoid.

Several people crashed in through the door at once, all of them falling in to fight positions immediately only to pause when all they saw were two of their own standing amidst a mildly wrecked locker room.

“Where did they go?” Turtle asked, both fists clenched tightly and masked face swinging wildly from side to side.

“Uh…what?” Side-eyeing his senpai, Tenzou was glad to see that Kakashi had had enough time to replace his cloth mask. When he looked back to the front Turtle was inspecting the walls.

“Whoever did all this! Someone set off an explosion in the armory only a few minutes ago. By the looks of things, they must have tried to escape through the ventilation shafts. Good thing you two were in here when they tried to come down but where did they go now!?”

“Er, you see, the thing is–?”

Tenzou’s stuttering was cut off by a lazy drawl from Kakashi. “Maa, back up in to the ceiling of course. There wasn’t anywhere else for them to go. Looked like they were heading north, right Cat?” With all eyes in the room on him, all Tenzou could do was offer an awkward smile and a hesitant nod.

“Then let’s go!”

A few seconds later and they were alone again, everyone else dashing away to chase after some bogeymen invaders who didn’t even exist.

Left behind in the room they had crash-landed in to, Kakashi and Tenzou let the silence stand for a little while, contemplating all the strange occurrences in their life which had led them to this weird set of circumstances. They watched detachedly as a small section of the ceiling gave up and came tumbling down to disintegrate on the floor tiles below. Eventually Tenzou cleared his throat purposely, trying hard not to sound as worried and awkward as he felt.

“Think they’ll figure it out?” he asked.

“Eventually, yeah. They’ll bring us in for questioning on what the perpetrators looked like and we both know you’ll cave under the pressure in like five minutes.”

“Hey! I’ve gone through the same interrogation training you have, mister, have a little more faith!”

Kakashi snickered. “Oh I have faith. I have a lot of faith in your people pleasing habits and your tendency to obey every order you are given even at risk to your own good name.”

“I’m not that bad, am I?”

“Sort of, yeah.” Kakashi reached over and tugged his friend closer so that he could lay a kiss against the shell of one ear before whispering in to it. “But I _like_ it when you’re bad. And when you’re good. And everything else in between as well.”

“Do you think we have time–?”

“Hmm…”

Tenzou gasped as he was pushed back against a row of lockers, mirroring the position he had found himself in when their adventure first began. He didn’t mind much. If Kakashi spent the rest of their lives pressing him up against the nearest hard surface he would certainly not complain about it. Although that was getting a little far ahead of himself, he realized, so for now he concentrated on how good it felt to enjoy the warmth of the only one he was certain had ever truly cared about him as a person instead of as a tool.

Fingers began to wander almost immediately after Kakashi pulled his mask down again and shuffled closer, only for both of them to jump nervously when the door of the lockers they were leaning on gave a protesting creak.

“What does a guy have to do to get a little busy around here without so much trouble?” Kakashi wilted forward to rest his head on Tenzou’s shoulder. Patting his senpai on the back of one shoulder, Tenzou chuckled a little wistfully.

“Let me know when you figure it out,” he said. “At this rate I’m going to be walking stiff for days.”

“Stiff, huh?”

“Yup – and you’ll never find out if I was talking about my muscles or something else unless we find somewhere a little more private.” Tenzou lifted one brow in a suggestive manner then laughed easily as Kakashi jerked upright, babbling about how anyone could walk in on them here and spouting new ideas like a fountain.

Allowing himself to be pulled by the wrist, Tenzou followed along as Kakashi hurried from the room, head swinging wildly from side to side before choosing a direction and rushing down the hall. Whether or not they did find a place to get a bit closer together this was still the best day of his entire life. He could hardly wait to see what tomorrow would bring – as long as it wasn’t more interruptions.


End file.
